Prototype For a Lickitung Catcher
by Elliot Pole
Summary: A boy and his Lombre sell an elderly gentleman a bunch of prototypes for a device specifically designed to capture Lickitung. The elderly gentleman soon learns that the device causes any Lickitung it captures to become a storage container for human girls. Now the elderly gentleman has to decide whehter to use this stuff morally...or for the evil side.
1. Chapter 1

**Prototype for a Lickitung Catcher**

A vendor stood in the middle of the streets with a Lombre at his side. He was announcing the prototype for a new machine that would catch a particular species of Pokemon. "It's called the X Keeper 4000!" he said to a couple of passersby. "It catches a Pokemon whose name starts with an 'X'! Can you guess which one I'm talking about?"

"Xatu?" the male asked.

"No."

"I don't think there's any other Pokemon whose name starts with X," said the woman, "unless this guy is talking about Unown, which can take the shape of an X."

"Give up? The correct answer is Lickitung!"

"But—Lickitung doesn't start with X!" both passersby exclaimed.

"It does if you believe it does," the vendor shouted, as they disappeared around a corner in frustration.

"How are we supposed to get business done if no one will take us seriously?" the vendor asked his Lombre. A stream of water came out of the Pokemon's mouth and hit the vendor squarely in the face. "Do that again and I'll trade you for an Ekans at the Trainer Festival next week!"

Lombre cowered behind a vase, which depicted a Lickitung bathing itself. "All the Lickitung merchandise in the world won't help me sell this stupid X Keeper 4000! Lickitung are fairly easy to catch anyway; who needs it?"

From around the corner an old man with a walrus moustache appeared. "Excuse me, but did you say you were selling a machine to ameliorate the pursuit of Lickitung?"

"Speak English, grandpa!"

The elderly gentleman's face went red as a beet. "Fine, you blasted horn imp! I was wondering if you were selling a machine to make catching Lickitung easier, but as you don't want to be kind to a customer…"

"No, no—if you want to buy, I'm ready to sell," the vendor said.

"Well, you know, I'd be more inclined to do business if this machine could help catch Farfetch'd, but I suppose Lickitung would be an ersatz substitute, but a substitute nonetheless."

"Sorry, my company doesn't deal in Farfetch'd merchandise. So, the X Keeper 4000—"

Someone interrupted the vendor mid-speech. "Barnaby, is your Lombre hiding behind that vase?"

"Minna, I'm at work! Please go away."

The girl who had shown up had brown hair and mousy cheeks. She seemed to be bright and observant. "Barnaby's my boyfriend," she told the vendor's customer. "But sometimes I think he loves his Lombre more than me."

"Right now, Minna, I'd love for you to leave," the vendor said, through clenched teeth.

"Okay, I can take a hint. You don't want me around." She ran away in tears.

"Poor kid," the gentleman remarked.

"Yeah, well, forget her. Now about the X Keeper 4000—"

"How many are you selling?"

"Fifty-two."

"What's your asking price?"

"Nine-hundred ninety five pokedollars for one."

"I'll take the lot."

"What!?!" the vendor asked, exasperatedly. "But, you only need one."

"And you _must _marry that girl. Minna, did you call her? When I was your age, I made the mistake of not marrying my girlfriend, and now look where it's got me? Filthy, stinking rich!"

"I wouldn't mind having some cash of my own to spend," the vendor muttered.

"And you will. But only if you promise to marry her. Furthermore, I will add ten percent to your asking price if you make this promise."

Barnaby's face glimmered with greed. "Sold!" he said. He handed the gentleman the sheet saying that the X Keeper 4000's must be sent to his address immediately. The gentleman put in a deposit, and the vendor gave him a receipt.

Two days later, the gentleman was given proof that his delivery would be made within a fortnight. Then Barnaby was given all of the promised cash, and he sent the required sixty percent to his company, keeping the rest for himself. He married Minna that night, and they flew to Slateport City. To erase all traces, he traded his Lombre for an Ekans as he had threatened he would do off and on for years.

The wealthy gentleman was in for a surprise when he received fifty-two prototypes instead of tested machines! Then he filed a lawsuit, but Barnaby and Minna were nowhere to be found. The company did not feel responsible, so he could not sue them. Private Investigator Yorkem was hired for the job. If she failed, her license would be revoked. And if she succeeded, she would be given a grand reward. And thus the pursuit commenced.


	2. Chapter 2

**Prototype for a Lickitung-Catcher**

**Chapter Two**

"Licki-tung!" the Pokemon said. It wrapped its tongue around the three girls, rolled uld be strange to see a Pinkan Island shae of pink on a Lickiturng, but Lickitung was so pink to believe with wothem around for a bit, and swallowed them whole.

The elderly gentleman woke up in a cold sweat. The only way a Lickitung could be large enough to do that would be if it were from Pinkan Island. But none existed on that island, did they?

Anyway, Lickitung was already pink. It couldZn't really benefit from the pink berries on Pinkan Island, could it? Certainly a Pink island shade of pink would be strange to see on a Lickiturng, but Lickitung's already naturally pink state only exemplified the absurdity of it all.

Anyhow, it was illegal for Pokemon to attack humans, and most Pokemon did not want to anyway, unless their trainers ordered them to. There were some sadistic Pokemon out there, like a Machamp who swam from Hoenn to Unova and beat up an entire town near what is now near Accumula Town…

Attacking humans is foul. But swallowing them is an even more considerable crime—it is evil on an unheard of scale.

It was just a nightmare the elderly gentleman had had, though. And anyway, one of the girls swallowed by the Lickitung in his dream was his darling Katherine, who would be his age now if she had not been hit by an automobile at seventeen…

He had cursed when he found out the news and said to his mother, "Why couldn't we stick with Rapidash-driven carriages like they had in your grandmother's day? There weren't as many accidents _then_."

His mother had told him that this was not so, that in those days some people sometimes foolishly touched one of the Rapiddash guiding the carriage and were soon suffering from third-degree burns. Shameful.

He had retorted that he'd rather Katherine have had a third-degree burn than be dead.

"That's rather rotten of you," his mother had said. "Third-degree burns are incredibly painful; being dead is painless."

"How would you know? Have you ever experienced either?"

His mother had taken a swipe at him with her rolling-pin, but he had dodged it.

The prospect of Katherine getting swallowed was very disconcerting. She was the only girl he had ever planned to marry. At least for love,. But it was not to be.

The elderly gentleman dropped his lawsuit against Barnaby, though he immediately regretted it, but once you drop a lawsuit its dropped for good until you can find another charge to raise a lawsuit over, and the elderly gentlemen had already used up his card.

It was a week after dropping the lawsuit before he got the idea to try the prototype device anyway.

He took one out to a Route where Lickiturng were likely to appear, specificallu the grass knoll surround ded by water near Fushia.

At first the elderly gentleman only saw a plethora of Tangela. Then he saw the familiar pink body of Lickitung, with its yellow rings in certain parts of its boy."

He then realized that he didn't know how to use the device in his hand. Did he just toss or or did he havveto the devil to the grounm

The Lickitung he had seen disappeared as he was trying to work the contraption.

Another Lickitung appeared a few minutes later. It was not the same one, for some of its markings were in different places. The elderly gentlemen quickly tried everything he could think of to get the prototype to do something, but nothing happened.

He flung the X-Keeper 4000 at the Lickitung just as the Pokemon was vanishing from sight. The device landed right behind the Lickitung's back foot and was almost swished away with its tail. The X-Keeper 4000 started making a bunch of beeping sounds, and the Lickitung froze. It turned around and glared at the elderly gentleman and charged at him. He was so stunned that he could not move. No matter how hard he tried, his adrenaline failed him.

Then, just as the Lickitung was about to reach him and headbutt him high into the sky, it looked up at him with a simple smile on its face. It seemed to be waiting for the elderly gentleman to pet it on its head. He reached out to do so when there was a low rumble heard out on the water that could only emanate from a motorboat.

At once Lickitung became alert. No, more than that. It seemed to be watcing something in the boat. There was a man with two young girls, one about fourteen and the other about eleven. Lickitung dived into the water and swam toward them. It bashed its head against the side of the boat and ducked underwater.

"What was that?" said the father or uncle or whatever relation he was to the two girls.

"Just your imagination, Daddy," said one of the girls. "I didn't feel a thing."

There was a thumping on the other side now, and though the elderly gentleman could not see that part of the boat from this angle, he figured that Lickitung was the cause. Then Lickitung emerged from behind the boat and smashed its head there. It did this to the front a moment later.

"Don't tell me you two aren't feeling that," the man in the boat said.

"Is Uncle Ralph making up attacks on the boat again?" one of the girl asked.

"He really seems to think that its happening," the other girl whispered, but on rivers whispers carry and the elderly gentleman on the embankment heard this very well.

Then Lickitung came from behind again and slammed its head into the motor, causing the motor to split and two, chug a little more for half a minute, and then die out.

"We're not moving," the man in the boat—Ralph?—said. "Something just smashed out motor."

As he bent over to check it out, Lickitung's head poked out from near the front of the boat, it reached out one huge tongue, and it lapped up one of the girls.

"Where'd you go, Clarissa?" the other girl asked. She seemed to have thought Clarissa had jumped in the water, but it didn't surprise her too much. She just pulled a paperback out of her bag and started reading.

The elderly gentleman watched, amazed, as Lickitung's tongue reached out to grab the girl reading and took her within, presumably to join the other girl.

He would have to kill the Lickitung when it returned to shore, and the two girls would hop out and rejoin their relative, who seemed to be father to one and uncle to the other. Or at least they referred to him as such. Which was not the same thing, of course.

The man still did not notice that the girls he was in charge of taking care of were missing. "Mary, be a doll and hand me the duct tape, would you? There was no one to hand him the duct tape but he found it near his foot a moment later.

Lickitung was coming toward shore. The elderly gentleman had to thing what to do. The Lickitung was a menace, like the one from his dream. There wasn't even space enough in a Lickitung's stomach for two human girls, unless the elderly gentleman did not know something very crucial about the interior of Licktiung anatomy.

The man turned around and saw that the girls weren't there. "Hey, what did I say about swimming in these waters? It's unsafe."

His eyes roved the water, searching for the girls. Lickitung had stopped and the man apparently took Lickitung's submerged head for that of one of the girls. "Oh, let them have fun," he muttered to himself. He went back to attempting to fix the motor.

When Lickitung arrived on shore, the elderly gentleman gave it the best murderous look he could muster. But the Lickitung seemed to be pleased with itself. It gave him a quizzical look as if saying, _Where to now, master?_


End file.
